Dear Jack Dear Louise

U.S. Army Captain Jack Ludwig, a military doctor stationed in Oregon, begins writing to Louise Rabiner, an aspiring actress and dancer in New York City, hoping to meet her someday if the war will allow. But as the war continues, it threatens to end their relationship before it even starts. Tony Award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig (Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Lend Me a Tenor) tells the joyous, heartwarming story of his parents' courtship during World War II and the results are anything but expected. "Ludwig's play, though about a particular moment in his personal history as well as our collective history, also resonates today. Dear Jack, Dear Louise is a moving, funny, and heartbreaking reminder of what we should strive to become, individually and as a country." - BroadwayWorld "Moving and cinematic... The play, based on the correspondence of Ludwig's parents-to-be, crackles with humor and real feeling." - DC Theatre Scene "An intimate play with tremendous breadth... Ken Ludwig's Dear Jack, Dear Louise plumbs the depths of human courage, commitment, and connection when the world and your heart are at stake." - DC Metro Theater Arts "Strikes the touchstones of the online dating age with uncanny precision." - The Washington Post

The name 'Jack the Ripper' is instantly recognised throughout the world, yet many people probably don't know that the famous nickname first appeared in a letter or that this was where the whole legend of Jack the Ripper really began. This title poses a controversial question: was 'Jack the Ripper' merely a press invention?

(Book). If you attended public school in the United States between 1973 and today, odds are you've heard Dave Frishberg's songs just see if any of these Schoolhouse Rock classics ring a bell: "The Number Cruncher," "Seven Fifty Once a Week," "Dollars and Sense," "Walking on Wall Street," "Hardware," and, of course, the classic "I'm Just a Bill." Of, course, Frishberg is much more than the writer of beloved civics-minded ditties he's also the brilliant lyricist and composer behind well-known songs including "Peel Me a Grape," "I'm Hip," "My Attorney Bernie," "Blizzard of Lies," and "Van Lingle Mungo," a top-flight jazz pianist, and, sardonic wit in tow, an exemplar of American ideals. From his boyhood and university days in St. Paul, Minnesota, to his Air Force service in Salt Lake City, and then on to his life as a pianist and songwriter in New York City and Los Angeles, My Dear Departed Past is a pointed, poignant, sagacious look back on a fascinating career in music at the height of the jazz scene and a storied life flush with wit, imagination, and good humor. For Frishberg, an internationally-known jazz pianist, songwriter, and lyricist, it all began in his WWII elementary school days. Mentored by his brother, Mort, seven years his senior, Dave discovered the music of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and Bing Crosby while listening to Mort's 78-rpm records. For good measure, Mort also taught Dave how to play boogie-woogie and blues on the piano a musical indoctrination that perfectly sharpened the younger Frishberg's musical tastes and laid the foundation for a lifelong love of music and the camaraderie of musicians. In this book populated with colorful characters especially the brilliant jazzmen and women he played with in iconic clubs and studios during the scene's heyday Dave brings his stories of being on the road and his experiences in the music business vividly to life. While My Dear Departed Past is a must-read for jazz aficionados, it's just as suitable for anybody who ever wondered about the composer behind those classic tunes singing the praises of active citizenship and financial security. This book includes online access to recordings of 20 Frishberg classics.

Grace Porter is reeling from grief after her partner of seven years unexpectedly leaves. Amidst her heartache, the 30 year-old library tech is tasked with reading newly discovered letters that Amelia Earhart wrote to her lover, Gene Vidal. She becomes captivated by the famous pilot who disappeared in 1937. Letter by letter, she understands more about the aviation hero while piecing her own life back together. When Grace discovers she is pregnant, her life becomes more intertwined with the mysterious pilot and Grace begins to write her own letters to Amelia. While navigating her third trimester, amidst new conspiracy theories about Amelia's disappearance, the search for her remains, and the impending publication of her private letters, Grace goes on a pilgrimage of her own. Letters to Amelia is a stunning, contemporary epistolary novel from the creator of the internationally acclaimed Love Lettering Project. It underscores the power of reading and writing letters for both connection and self-discovery, and celebrates the unwritten, undocumented parts of our lives. Above all, Letters to Amelia is a story of the essential need for connection--and our universal ability to find hope in the face of fear. Praise for Letters to Amelia: "Brimming over with Lindsay Zier-Vogel's obvious love for the story of Amelia Earhart, Letters to Amelia is a wonderful novel about flight and passion, about love-letters and reaching out; a novel about how we never know quite what's coming next, but still keep launching ourselves into the blue tomorrow."--Jon McGregor, author of Reservoir 13 "A tender portrait of heartbreak and a thoughtful ode to new motherhood. Letters to Amelia is an endorsement of finding our own ways to heal, and a celebration of that big, messy, wonderful journey of coming into one's own. Charming and beautifully rendered, this is a big-hearted hopeful novel, full of life and love." --Stacey May Fowles, author of Baseball Life Advice: Loving the Game that Saved Me "When we think of Amelia Earhart, we think enigmatic adventurer and feminist pioneer--and, of course, of her mysterious disappearance. But in Letters to Amelia, we meet a different Amelia Earhart, as seen through the eyes of Grace, the novel's protagonist, a young library tech tasked with reading her letters: an Amelia who is funny, charming, joyful, sad, and most of all, full of life. Zier-Vogel writes with uncanny empathy about heartbreak, friendship, motherhood, and the common threads that connect women across time, geography, and even between earth and sky. Letters to Amelia is a gorgeous, big-hearted debut that will make you feel like you are flying, and Zier-Vogel is a writer whose career is about to soar." --Amy Jones, author of Every Little Piece of Me "Letters to Amelia invites us to hold our heroines close and to take heart - it is gentle and joyous, full of tenderness, alive and sturdy with hope." --Anne Michaels, author of Fugitive Pieces and The Winter Vault

Honest, funny, unorthodox, liberated and quintessentially English, Dodie Smith, playwright and novelist, was the author of the immortal classics, The Hundred and One Dalmatians and I Capture the Castle. One of the most successful playwrights of her generation, she spent the war years in the U.S. where she befriended Christopher Isherwood, and through Walt Disney’s film, became a household name.

Contemporary Farce on the Global Stage provides audiences and practitioners a detailed survey of how the genre of farce has evolved in the 21st century. Often dismissed as frivolous, farce speaks a universal language, with the power to incisively interrogate our world through laughter. Unlike farces of the past, where a successful resolution was a given and we could laugh uproariously at adulterous behaviour, farce no longer guarantees an audience a happy ending where everything works out. Contemporary farce is no longer ‘diverting us’ with laughter. It is reflecting the fractured world around us. With a foreword by award-winning playwright Ken Ludwig, the book introduces readers to the Mechanics of Farce, and the ‘Four Ps,’ which are key elements for understanding, appreciating, and exploring the form. The Five Doors to Contemporary Farce identify five major categories into which farces fall. Behind each door are a wide selection of plays, modern and contemporary examples from all over the world, written by a diverse group of playwrights who traverse gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Supplementing each section are comments, observations, and reflections from award-winning playwrights, directors, actors, designers, dramaturgs, and scholars. Designed specifically to give theatre-makers a rounded understanding that will underpin their own productions, this book will also be of use to theatre and performance studies students.

Typescript, dated Jan. 16, 1996. Heavily marked with colored ink and highlighter by the videographer. Used by The New York Public Library's Theatre on Film and Tape Archive on Feb. 21, 1996, when videotaping the stage production at the Martin Beck Theatre, New York, N.Y. The production opened on Oct. 1, 1995, and was directed by Tom Moore. It starred Carol Burnett, Philip Bosco, and Jane Connell.

Get your deerstalker cap on — the play’s afoot! Comedic genius Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo) transforms Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic The Hound of the Baskervilles into a murderously funny adventure. Sherlock Holmes is on the case. The male heirs of the Baskerville line are being dispatched one by one. To find their ingenious killer, Holmes and Watson must brave the desolate moors before a family curse dooms its newest heir. Watch as our intrepid investigators try to escape a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises, and deceit as five actors deftly portray more than forty characters. Does a wild hellhound prowl the moors of Devonshire? Can our heroes discover the truth in time? Join the fun and see how far from elementary the truth can be.